Usage

These languages aren't as widely used as others.
Is there any special usages they can be used for?
something perl can do better than anything else?
Currently, I don't see the point of using these languages but i want to learn, though that seems a bit pointless if I'll never use them

Which languages?

the ones in the title of this forum

I assume you mean the tags and that they are supposed to say Perl, Python and Ruby. They aren't used as much as PHP and ASP, no, but are perfectly valid programming languages. The popular Ruby on Rails framework is built on the Ruby programming language. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, I haven't the experience or the knowledge to explain them properly.

Pete.

Cheers, in your (or anyone elses) opinion then.
Should I bother learning them?
If I did I'd probably try perl first.

Ruby is gaining popularity and potentially is a really useful language. It's looking to be a bit of a player in the near future too. It'll have a long way to go before it beats php and asp as a web language but has shown massive growth in the past few years. I'll warn you it's not simple at all and there is a steep learning curve. If you're good with programming languages though, I'm sure you'll do ok.

Pete.

Yeah i'm not bad at the development side.
Is it a similiar syntax to php?

I've got a mammoth book on it somewhere it's supposed to be a good one but was a bit much as I hadn't done any programming before. I plan to revisit it but won't have time till after christmas . I'll dig it out and try and give you run down on the language. In the meantime check here, it is the webby home of the language and is a good source for info. You should check Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. It's an awesome read, the guy is a genius.

Pete.

cheers guru

Just doing a quick tutorial.
ruby's quite easy so far!

It's quite elegant in parts. I still never fully understood how to implement the code. It reads really well and makes more sense than a lot of other languages. It can get pretty complex though. So be warned.

Pete.

Doing simple things in Ruby is simple. Taking advantage of the full power of the language can get complex, but you probably don't need to go very deep to make use of it.

One big difference between Ruby and PHP is that Ruby is purely object-oriented. Everything in Ruby is an object -- even numbers, or strings. This makes it clean and powerful. It also has a very clean syntax -- you don't need to put a semicolon at the end of a line, and you don't need to put parentheses around arguments.

But the main thing that makes Ruby interesting for web applications in the Ruby on Rails framework. The framework is written in Ruby, and Rails applications are written in Ruby.

Michael